The India’s tally of Coronavirus reached 2 million (twenty lakh) on Thursday amidst sharp spike in the number of positive cases, which put the country in the third spot after USA (4.82 million) and Brazil (2.86 million). However, experts suggest that the country’s number of COVID-19 cases per million is still under control at 1466; whereas, per million positive cases of USA (15,103) and Brazil (13,508) is almost ten times higher.
Even though 2 million Coronavirus appear to be a huge number but given the enormity and density of the India’s population, the cases remain manageable. The country is at 94th rank as far as infection per million is concerned.
Yet, it was argued, rightly so, that India’s testing (16035) per million is very low in comparison with USA (189661), Brazil (62664) and Russia (205824).
At 2.9 positivity rate Russia is doing considerably well while, in contrast, Brazil’s (22.1%) positivity rate is quite high. The positivity rate of the USA is 8% while India is at 9.1%. Incidentally, India’s positivity rate has jumped by nearly 5% since April 11 which was earlier at around 4%. But the concern for India is that it is heavily relying on the ‘Antigen Testing’ which is not considered a reliable method of diagnosis with reportedly only 50% accuracy.
Nevertheless, the figure that gives India the actual hope is the number of deaths per million which is 31 at the time of compiling this report. The USA’s and Brazil’s death per million is 490 & 459 respectively.
Still some observers point out that so far, the major impact of the epidemic has been remained confined to the metros and large cities until recently. However, given the latest trends, it is spreading in smaller cities and rural areas steadily. Therefore, the figure may get grim due to the much mediocre medical facilities in these areas.
On the other hand, the South Indian states of Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh and Karnataka have lately emerged as new hotspots of the country wherethe Corona positive cases are surging in these states rapidly. Meanwhile, Hindi belt states with huge population density, such as Uttar Pradesh and Bihar are grappling with rising infections.
(Shams Khan is contributing editor at the TheNewsweb.)
